"I would polish Rohit Sharma's shoes": Former Team India cricketer Sandeep Patil

BCCI’s former chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil, whose selection committee first picked Sharma for Test cricket in 2013-14, hails India captain’s retirement in longest format

Sandeep Patil, the chairman of selectors, who handed Rohit Sharma a Test match opportunity in the 2013-14 home series against the West Indies after the then middle-order batsman spent six years as a limited-overs player, felt both “sad” and “great” on Wednesday after hearing the news of the current India captain’s retirement from Test cricket. “Sad, because Rohit should have played a lot more Tests [than 67], and I feel great because he has taken his Test retirement call at the right time. Cricket is all about timing and Rohit’s timing here is absolutely perfect,” Patil told mid-day. 

Patil’s committee which included Roger Binny (South Zone), Syed Saba Karim (East Zone), Vikram Rathour (North Zone) and Rajinder Singh Hans (Central Zone), was immediately proved right as Rohit scored a Test debut 177 against the touring West Indies team at Kolkata and followed it up with 111 not out in the Mumbai Test, where the legendary Sachin Tendulkar bid farewell to the game.

Also Read: Team India's Rohit Sharma draws curtain on his international Test career

Rohit Sharma

“I don’t know what happened with the selection committees before ours, but I felt Rohit should have been playing all formats. He was classy and ended up becoming a genius. If I were a sole selector, I would always pick him for all formats,” remarked Patil, who ended his stint in 2016. 

Rohit’s next three-figure score after his debut series came in 2017-18 against the touring Sri Lankans. In terms of most number of centuries for him in a series, Rohit scored three against the South Africans in 2019-20 — 176 and 127 at Vizag and 212 in Ranchi.

“I have gone on record to say that I would polish Sachin Tendulkar’s shoes. I would do the same for Rohit Sharma. Such is my admiration for him,” concluded Patil. 

Rohit, 38, scored 4301 runs in 67 Tests with 12 hundreds and 18 half-centuries at an average of 40.57.  

67
No of Tests Rohit Sharma has played 

12
No. of Test centuries by Rohit

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